


Summer Breeze

by TJ_Dragonblade



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Gen, My old writing makes me cringe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-06-24
Updated: 2004-06-24
Packaged: 2017-11-19 06:23:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/570175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TJ_Dragonblade/pseuds/TJ_Dragonblade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brief glimpses at rare happy moments many years ago</p>
            </blockquote>





	Summer Breeze

**Author's Note:**

> Title borrowed from the Seals & Crofts song by the same name, although it was the Type O Negative cover that I had in mind while writing. Written for the Summer Detour Challenge at [LJ's Broken_Compass community](http://Broken_Compass.livejournal.com)  
> Started: 6/22/04  
> Drafted: 6/23/04

In the rolling fields on the hillside outside the temple compound, Kouryuu stretched lazily against the long grass. He chewed absently on a blade of the stuff, sprawled out on his back in the sunshine, head pillowed on Shuei's stomach, watching fluffy wisps of cotton-candy clouds drift far and away against the deep blue sky. He had been very pleased when Shuei had invited him to help outside in the fields for the day; had been very pleased that Master Sanzo had given that soft benign smile and permitted him to go. "A change of pace does everyone good," Master Sanzo had said, and shooed them off to work under the summer sun. 

The work had been neither long nor difficult; and now, as a soft midday breeze ruffled the grass all about and Shuei's big gentle hand absently ruffled his golden hair, Kouryuu felt at peace and almost...happy. He liked Shuei. And Shuei liked him--the youth had told him so, once; had smiled and kissed him on the mouth and laughed about 'If only you were a bit older, Kouryuu..." Truly, could there be a better way to spend the afternoon than with the one you called 'friend' beneath the comfortable warmth of summer? 

Right now, Kouryou couldn't think of anything nicer.

And right now, it didn't matter what names the others called him, or that they thought him undeserving of Koumyou Sanzo's mentoring attentions; it didn't matter that the same resentful stares and sharp whispers would still follow him when he re-entered the walls of the temple. Right now, he had Shuei and he had sunshine. 

And he was content. 

~*~  
Silently, glancing covertly about himself every few paces, Cho Gonou made his way to his private reading spot and climbed up into the gnarled limbs of his favorite tree, book tucked securely in his belt. He skinned his knee a time or two against the rough bark on the way up, but he paid the vague stinging no mind and pulled himself into the cradling fork of two limbs that grew like they'd been made to fit his little body. Pushing his glasses up on his nose, he opened the book and settled back to lose himself for a time.

After awhile, he lifted his eyes from the print, and glanced at the world about him; and his lips curved just the tiniest bit. No one could bother him here, beneath the cool green canopy of spreading leaves, high up in his tree; here, he could let the pages of his stories swallow him up and take his private delight in the written word, in the stirring of the warm summer breeze through his dark oak-moss hair, in the dappled sunlight that fell across the book in his lap. It was days like today and moments like this that gave him a sense of happiness, of possibility and belief in a brighter future...

Right now, it didn't matter that he had neither parents nor friends, that he did not know where his sister had been taken. It didn't matter that he would eventually have to return to the dull dusty world inside the orphanage, where hope was a pitiful thing that lay dying in the colorful shadows cast by stained-glass renderings of myriad useless saints and deities, where the kind faces of the sisters were all tainted with pious pity. Right now, he could treasure this moment alone in the warm peak of summer life, this beautiful moment of peace and happiness; Gonou could smile, if he really wanted to; and no one would be around to see... 

~*~  
"No--Aniki, don't! I _swear_ I'm gonna get you back--!"

Sha Gojyo's words might have sounded more suitably threatening if he hadn't been laughing while he spoke. Thrown upside-down and helpless over his half-brother's shoulder, he was hardly in a position to be making threats regardless; and Jien slung him off and chucked him smugly from the riverbank with a wicked cackle. 

Gojyo hit the water and came back up spluttering, laughing still; the day was just too nice for anything else. The sun shone down bright and hot, making a dunk in the river's shallows all too inviting; the water ran cool and clear with the summer breeze, tempting the brothers into a moment of rare abandon. The chores could wait a little longer; right now, Gojyo was intent on challenging his brother for dominion of the riverbank. And it didn't matter that he knew he'd keep losing, that he'd always be the one landing in the water unless Jien decided to take it easy on him once or twice; he was having fun and so was Jien and that was the only truly important thing in that moment. 

And for that brief moment, all was right with the world. It didn't matter that Mother hated him and his bright red hair and his blood-red eyes; it didn't matter that she beat him, that she cried every time she looked at him, that nothing he could ever do would make her love him. Right now, he could let go and simply be a child for an hour or two, could be carefree and happy and shriek with laughter as his brother tossed him back into the shallows again, arms and legs flailing gleefully as he landed with a tremendous splash... 

For the moment, life was good.

~*~  
Son Goku's brow creased in a tiny frown as he woke, stirred from slumber by a rare warmth against his out-stretched hand where it lay on the cold stone floor. 

He cracked one eye open, and found sunbeams dancing softly before his vision.

"Sunshine!" He sat bolt upright, sleep forgotten as he scrambled to his knees and crowded up to the space between the stone bars that held him captive, chains jingling behind him. It was so rare to see the sun in the shadows of his isolation; all too often the clouds would drift close outside, obscuring that precious light and heat... 

Goku loved the sunlight, loved feeling its gentle warmth soaking into his skin, against his closed eyelids. He shifted closer against the bars of his prison, hands curling around the stone, a smile on his lips as he lifted his dust-smeared face into that blessed brightness. A hint of memory tickled at him, something about...about...golden hair that shone like the sun, and a warm feeling of happiness and contentment... 

Sunlight played in soft caresses across his cheeks, and the memory slipped quietly away again. 

But somehow, it didn't really matter. He would grow frustrated about it later, certainly, when the sun no longer shone and the warmth had bled from the rock that imprisoned him; but for now, he would soak up every radiant beam that he could. And it didn't matter that he couldn't remember why he was here, or even where 'here' was; it didn't matter that he couldn't appease that strange tug at his soul that told him there was something he was missing that someone out in the world beyond could provide; right now, he had his moment of oh-so-precious sunshine, and he treasured it for all it was worth.

And nothing could have moved him from its light.


End file.
